Friday, April 30, 2010

As I was leaving the cinema, a lot of people were talking (discussing/concluding/whatever you like) about what they just saw. From what I heard, these people are dumbs, and this film is average.

Let’s just begin from where Ip Man 1 ended. That was a hit, a real thriller and a major box office success which skyrocketed Ip Man and arguably Donnie Yen’s fame. So the producers decided to take advantage of that, and the sequel was planned. Fair enough. The version I had, was that it was going to be about Ip’s life in Hong Kong and most interestingly, Bruce Lee. And then it turned out that Bruce's rights couldnt be obtained and he only appeared for a short while, portrayed by a kid.

The major mistake that the producers made, I thought, was continuing the adaptation of patriotism of the Chinese. In Ip Man, the theme was spot on because the antagonist were the Imperial Japanese Army. But this was the 50s(Ip man only left for Hong Kong after the civil war has ended). To portray the British as bad as that was inappropriate, made British looked dumb.

Come to talk of the era, 杜宇航, Sammo Hung's principal pupil, wore Beanies and jeans, which is something that is rare even among the white people,let alone the chinese. The whole settings and backgrounds always provide a feeling of 70s, sort of feeling the presence of Bruce Lee. In this, i think the producers failed terribly.

The scenes of a chinese martial artist fighting a western Boxer, we have already witnessed in Huo Yuan Jia. To be more accurate, Huo never fought any wrestlers nor boxers, in both cases his opponent withdrew. That about sums up the fact that a martial artist, let alone a master of Ip Man's calibre, would easily knock down western boxers in a round. Boxing is a sport, martial arts is not a sport. I find it silly when people do not realise this simple fact and simply exaggerates the strength of the boxers and eventually, the ability of Master Ip. Even Chuck Norris, a former US Air Force member and martial artist himself, couldn't fight Bruce Lee.

As movie goers, I do feel disappointed, and fooled by the producers who made that fight. And if that boxer was a world champion, why wasn't he fighting in MSG? For Simon Yam's character, I haven't known someone who survived after being shot at the head.

Donnie Yen is impeccable once more. Simply a brilliant performance from him again, and quite honestly is the only positive from the movie. He could be right about the third sequel though, as it is already disastrous.